There is no Goodwill here

We or rather I have now received election addresses from two candidates hoping to be Member of Parliament for Scarborough. I say I because the Conservative Party address was to me personally, Marion was not deemed worth of a copy for now, perhaps the old patrician attitude holds good in that Marion will vote in the way that I tell her. Those of you who know Marion will realise that there is fat chance of that.

Now the election address is traditionally the vehicle by which the prospective MP communicates to the electorate. He or she tells them that they have deep local roots, a great awareness of all the local issues, and that they are solid family men or women. This does not necessarily have to be the truth or at least the whole truth. I remember the successful candidate in my mother’s constituency at the last election, he included a photograph of his smiling wife and children, and within weeks of the election he set up house with another man. No one saw that coming!

Now our sitting Member of Parliament is a junior Transport Minister with I understand special responsibility for the new high speed rail line. So you would expect him to know a thing or two about rail transport. And indeed it forms one of the main planks on which he hopes that he will be elected. He states that he wishes to increase the frequency of trains to Scarborough, and that to do this will require another platform at Malton this being the intermediate point between Scarborough and York. Really this proposition is downright inaccurate, maybe even deceitful.

• The rail frequency to Scarborough has actually decreased in the last five years. The    MP did nothing about this, indeed under the franchising arrangements to private companies I do not think that he had any powers to do so or indeed future powers.

• The provision of an additional platform at Malton is a red herring, if a rail company wished to double the frequency of trains between Scarborough and York; it could easily do so without provision of an expensive additional platform at Malton. Let me explain currently the one train an hour in each direction arrives/departs from Malton within ten minutes just past the hour. So logically another train in each direction could arrive/depart at just past the half hour. Fairly elementary scheduling that a novice could work out.

• The service will actually get worse in the next five years because of action that the government has taken. In 2017/18 trains to Blackpool, an insignificant destination from Scarborough, will replace the through service to Manchester and Liverpool, major destinations from Scarborough. Passengers for Manchester/Liverpool will have to change trains. This is as a direct result of government rail policy.

So our MPs statements on his election address are incorrect. This is worrying for somebody in charge of policy on the most expensive rail project in UK history. I also question that if the address is wrong on something that I know a little about, how wrong is it about things where I have no knowledge. Perhaps it is because although our MP regularly catches the train from York, he never uses the Scarborough to York rail line as he lives outside of the constituency close to York and therefore drives to York station.

I doubt that he will be getting my vote!